


four times cullen meets a hero out of costume (and the nth time he doesn't)

by orphan_account



Series: the ceiling can't hold us [2]
Category: Swimming RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Journalism, London, M/M, Mild Language, Other, Secret Identity, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-16
Updated: 2013-08-16
Packaged: 2017-12-23 17:32:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/929215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cullen has an awful morning. But he has a lot of fun during the night. So much fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	four times cullen meets a hero out of costume (and the nth time he doesn't)

004\. _The Breeze_

It's a shitty morning. The kind of shitty that leads to more shittiness, not because the Fates have decided you suck, but simply because you are off your game and that inattention is going to cost you, like, so much money.

Cullen's car breaks down in the driveway so he's forced to call a cab.

While he waits, he sips cold coffee and nibbles on a slice of brick-hard toast before rushing out the door into the cool London morning the moment his phone alerts him the cab has arrived. Stumbling and practically tripping into the yellow and black vehicle, Cullen heaves a relieved sigh once he settles into the backseat heavily, but then something in his computer bag gives an earthshattering crack that has him cringing.

"Where to?" The cabbie asks as he pulls out onto the residential street.

"Can you get me to Thomas More Square?"

"I can try, if you want."

Cullen laughs, and settles into his seat more comfortably. He sets his bag on the seat next to him carefully and tries not to think about what might have broken. Instead, he decides to make small talk with the cabbie.

"Did you see the Miami Heats crush the London Lions last night?" Cullen asks. March Madness had just started up a few days ago and he was excited to see all the other countries send all their teams out to compete in the GBA tournament.

"Oh, yeah. That was intense, I could hardly believe it even though I was watching it with my own eyes. I have family in Florida, so they were pretty psyched. Hey, you don't mind if I turn on my stereo do you? It won't be too loud."

"Sure."

Cullen looks out the window at the London city scenery passing. Green trees, gray sky, and a colorful mass of people blur into a palette of images and thoughts beyond the glass. Jay-Z's voice filters into his ears through the speakers and _Who Gon Stop Me_ rolls through the cars. It sounds much tinnier because it is so quiet, but Cullen would recognize familiar beat and synthesizer use.

He starts rapping along and soon enough the cabbie joins in and they're shouting the lyrics to the rest of the songs in the album by the time they arrive at Cullen's destination.

"You have excellent tastes." Cullen says very seriously as he pays a solid tip in addition to the regular fare.

"As do you. See you around, man, take care."

"Yeah, same to you."

He steps out of the cab, bag in hand, and is hit with a wave of nostalgia. He and Ryan used to do that all the time, screaming rap lyrics out the window as they drove down city streets late at night like idiots. Ryan went missing somewhere in California during his latest job, and Cullen can't help but feel an awful pang, like it was his fault for referring Ryan for the job. 

003\. _Triton_

The only good bit of his morning was meeting the cabbie with family in North America.

Cullen stares at his blank, white screen and mocking, blinking cursor and stands up abruptly. It's lunch time. His chair rolls out from behind him like a lost groupie, and then he is striding out of his cubicle, out of his office, and shouting out behind him: "I'm taking lunch!"

He's out of his building in a flash, running down the stairs in order to escape his fourth floor office and striding quickly to a little deli a few blocks away.

"A turkey sandwich with the works, please." He says.

The man behind the counter is really tall, either as tall or taller than Cullen and Cullen is no tiny shrub himself.

"Yeah. Anything to drink?"

"No, I'm good."

The man smiles with too much gum, his eyes scrunching up with amusement as if he knows Cullen has had a kind of shitty day. First his car breaks down, then he begins to suffer from writer's block while writing on his latest feature article for _The Times_ , all on top of the fact that there is no more coffee in the break room. And his stylus broke, so while he looks for a replacement, he has to either use a keyboard or his finger to jot down notes on his tablet and he _hates_ typing on a touch screen even though he supposedly grew up in the Age of Technology.

"You sure?"

"Wait. A Mountain Dew, please."

"Ah, caffeine, a good choice."

Cullen smiles back this time and sits down at a table in a quiet corner and watches cars zoom by in the street outside. He sits in a bit of a daze, just thinking about big cities and how he misses the Empire State Building in the horizon when someone sets a basket of food and a drink in front of him.

"Thank you." He says earnestly, and Mike, says a nametag, from beyond the counter shakes his head almost fondly.

"No problem. Enjoy."

As Cullen returns to his building, approaching the imposing structure of metal and clean cut plastic angles, he is sucking out the last life giving juices from his cup of Mountain Dew before he throws it into a trash compacter. He feels like he might have an idea about what he wants for his article now, but he needs to do some research first.

002\. _Calypso_

"Do you have paper records going back to 2012?" Cullen asks a librarian. Cullen wasn't even alive when the Age of Superheroes began. So many ages to live through, but so many more to miss.

The librarian is smiling at him toothily, friendly and personable in the face of his difficult demands, and gestures for him to follow as she begins to lead him beyond shelves and shelves of books.

"Missy, do you mind manning the information desk alone while I'm gone?"

"It's fine, Allison, I'll just be here, twiddling my thumbs on this fine Wednesday afternoon."

Allison smiles her thanks and then seems to walk with Cullen for hours until they finally arrive in a backroom.

"Our archives are pretty deep in there." Allison explains. "The microfilm is really far back! It's just, no one really wants to see them, you know? Not when they can just pull up anything they want on a holo-screen. Why have those noisy, cluttered instruments needed to read that stuff hog all the good space, right?"

"Right. At least the Global Government was good enough to allow them to stay in operation though."

"Yeah." Allison says, thoughtfully. "Well, here we are." She opens a dark room and turns on a light, revealing rows and rows of cabinets labeled by year. When he opens up the nearest drawer and is greeted by boxes and boxes of microfilm sorted by newspaper and month.

"What are you looking for?"

"I'm not sure." Cullen admits.

"Well, I don't mind helping. What kind of sources do you need?"

When Cullen walks out of the library later, blinking owlishly with a folder full of print outs in one hand, and the echo of Allison's happy shout when she finds a good article in both ears he smiles as he heads back to his building. Not such a bad day after all.

001\. _The Damaga_

Nathan is waiting when he gets home and Cullen suddenly feels his outlook on his day brighten considerably.

"Hey, babe." He says, leaning down and pressing a kiss into Nathan's hair. It looks deceptively soft, but to the touch it is waxy and hard, filled with product and carefully styled to casually rumpled. Very adorable.

"Hey, you." Nathan says, still reading the morning paper, and absentmindedly throwing an arm around Cullen's waist for a fond squeeze as he walks by to make dinner. "How was today? Anything good happen with the article about super heroes you're working on?"

"It's coming along. I met this really nice librarian who helped me out by sorting through a bunch of old microfilms with me. I am now sure that Louis Lane is crazy, because who actually gets close enough to a Superhero to ask hard hitting questions? And Peter Parker, man, that kid is totally one with the camera. Too many insanely great pictures to be real, I swear." Cullen calls back from the kitchen as he puts chicken cutlets in a plastic bag full of seasoning he prepared the other day.

Nathan hums in a tone Cullen decides to interpret as 'neutral'.

After dinner they curl up in front of the TV for a bit, watching comedians aggressively parody the news, something that never grows old, and leaning against each other, comfortably full. Nathan mutters about his latest attempts to petition the animal shelter he works at to take in all lost pets, not just the ones with origins hailing from Earth.

"They'll cause trouble otherwise. Why not spend a little money funding quarters to accomodate them, rather than spend a whole lot on trying to capture them after they've, I don't know, built a hive or something in someone's attic."

Cullen kisses Nathan very softly, just a peck, and just to tell him that he's very fond of the way he gets very passionate about the greater good.

"Morality is so attractive. Just have some Jolly Ranchers before you go before a board meeting or something." Cullen murmurs into Nathan's ear, sliding a hand up Nathan's shirt to trace the jut of his hips and suddenly Nathan is laughing his booming laugh and kissing Cullen even more sweetly than before.

"Whatever. Come to bed."

"Please. I was going to go to bed anyway."

"Uh-huh."

_000._

They don't get very much sleep that night.

"Where's Triton? Is his head stuck, like, in an underwater volcano or something? Is that even something he does?"

"Uh."

Nathan adjusts the domino mask covering his eyes and shrugs, unwilling to engage in Cullen's crazy theories about why Triton is late.

"Breezy and Calypso too! The three of them are a menace."

A thud and a quiet rustle alerts Damaga and Hurtz of the arrival of three other superheroes.

"No. No. You guys were fucking before this weren't you?" Cullen hisses. He sounds scandalized, the taste of his surprise is all lemon zest, but Nathan just goes back to sharpening his knives idly. Cullen will get over it eventually. He's probably just a little put out all they had time for tonight was a sloppy make-out session before they suited up for patrols.

Ever since the three of them went on that one recon mission, and came back battered and bruised and cackling, they'd been pretty tight. He could taste it in the air around them, when their relationship changed, Hubba Bubble sweet.

Breezy's satiated laugh is a little crazy, like it always is, as if being in the field brings him a natural high.

"Man, chill, don't worry about it." He says. "We were listening on our way here and it seemed like a quiet night."

Calypso snaps a finger and sparks pop and crackle around her fingers. "You know, I think I sense a mugging somewhere down there. Come on, Triton, it's down by the Thames, let's have some fun."

Cullen raises his head and cocks it to the side as if he is listening for something. "Okay, link us up. I got something."

The slippery feeling of Calypso linking their minds is a comfort in the cool night. Cullen is a muted purple and blue blur at the edge of his mind.

"Police radio says there's something going on by a Big Ben. I don't get why people have to go and do stupid things near historical monuments." Cullen says. He folds his arm and his costume pulls tight over his shoulders. Nathan takes a moment to appreciate the sight.

"Breezy, if you could just have a look around the city that would be great. Don't engage if it's something dangerous, call us and we'll hopefully be able to throw a plan together."

"Okay, Bossman, but remember you're only in charge for tonight! And only because you got here early."

His pout might be barely visible in the darkness of night but Nathan can taste something chemical and orange blossom sweet and he sighs.

"Hey guys, remember why we're fighting crime together in the first place? So we can have some stability and use _teamwork_ to our advantage."

"Okay, Mom."

"Yeah, you better respect your mother young man, or there will be no one to do your laundry for you." Cullen says.

"Calypso will though, right?"

"In your dreams, lover boy." Calypso says and tosses her hair just to for that extra kick of sass that has Nathan close sneezing. Pepper. Triton is a tall and silent pillar behind her, face hidden by a deep blue cowl. His amusement tasted faintly of honey dew. Mild and sweet. 

Taking a deep breath and snapping his spearmint gum, Nathan unfolds from his crouch and stretches. The gum takes the edge off when he has to be on the offensive, pain is always a bitter and cloying.

"Well, see everyone back here at dawn. Stay in touch!" He says as he flings himself off the roof in the direction of Big Ben.

"They're so cute." Nathan says into Cullen's head as he hurtles through the air between rooftops.

"No. Not you too." Cullen says, and he sounds like someone just took away his tablet and told him to write an article with a typewriter, but Nathan can smell carnations and the taste of Smarties on his tongue and he _knows_ that Cullen is happy for them too, fond and amused by how a such a stoic guy like Triton ended up with such a sassy mage and a silly master-of-ergokinesis.

He finds himself chuckling as he falls over the next edge of a roof, and he reaches out to feel a brief brush of Cullen's fingers against his. In his mind, he feels a brush of warmth from Cullen. With his powers, he tastes peaches, tangy and fresh. Love. 

"Whatever."

**Author's Note:**

> Everything is a pun. Everything is an allusion. Now you see it, now you don't. 
> 
> Calypso is an Oceanid and has a sister who becomes Poseidon's consort. Triton is Poseidon's son. I think there's a nice symmetry to that. 
> 
> Hurtz is a play on the word "hertz", which is a unit of frequency, so not only is there pain being brung, there is also a lot of it. He has super hearing, a sonic scream, and is well versed in hand-to-hand combat. 
> 
> Damaga is a nickname mentioned in an interview with USASwimmingOrg (maybe it was also on twitter), and his powers are being an assassin-empath who identifies feelings by taste! 
> 
> Breezy has ergokinesis, the power to manipulate energy, and his name is hilarious because of reasons.


End file.
